


Soul Quest

by MerpsiclesTheGreat



Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M, Spoilers if you haven't seen or read past the time skip I guess, There's fights at some point but I don't know if they're graphic, This took me months I'm sorry, no beta we die like men, we'll see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:55:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28288809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerpsiclesTheGreat/pseuds/MerpsiclesTheGreat
Summary: Prompt tumblr @shiroishinobi: “Oda always focuses on how pure and radiant Luffy’s soul is, what if the crew encountered someone who noticed this and tried to steal him/ his soul? The crew goes on a mad adventure to recapture their Captain’s soul."ZoLu added because I can, but it's more of a sub plot.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. Prologue

Luffy blinks in the dark, mind pulling from sleep like a southern drawl. Moments pass, and he recognizes his surroundings. Soft bedding beneath him, Zoro's low breathing even farther. Waves gently crashing into the hull, the sound familiar and the rock soothing.

_ All night, all day, I watch you all…  _

Brook singing a new tune. Or… not. 

_ Unknowingly, you carry on…  _

Luffy's weary eyes widen, and every sensory nerve in his spark to attention.

_ To your dismay, I'll never stray, and take you for mine own…  _

"Who's there?!" Luffy leaps from his bunk into a fighting stance, eyes trained for movement. 

_ Your time has come, and yet no one will hear your screams again… _

"Guys, what're you doing?!" No response came from the occupied bunks, and Luffy risks a glare to his mates. "Hey, Zoro! Sanji! C'mon, guys!"

As he calls for help and maybe some answers, the melody repeats and gets louder. Thousands of hushed voices reverberate from the cabin walls to Luffy's skull. He could hear every accent, age, sex, and mood from all over time, but the ache made thinking impossible.

"Chopper… it hurts…" Luffy is driven to his knees, and his voice is already sore. All of his energy, miniscule as it is, channels to his elbows. A new level of fear pressed his final words through his lips, and he crawls to his final hope. 

"Zoro… I'm…"

A shadow looms over the broken captain. Other than Luffy's labored breathing, everything is silent. He only gets a second to think about it before everything goes black. A sharp, indescribable pain pierces his chest and that is when the split begins. 

The shadow admires its work, hand dripping with the same life oozing off the body beneath it. Then, without another sound, it's gone.


	2. Chapter 1: Morning After

On days like this, the sun would peek over the horizon just enough to remind Zoro that chaos would shortly ensue. He would set down his weights, dry his forehead, and nap on the booths overlooking the deck. That much was the same.

But something was different.

Farther the sun rose, raising crew members from slumber. Shuffling feet and clanking bones, tapping shoes and clopping hooves. The crew moseys about, fulfilling their typical morning routines without a word.

But something is different.

Robin descends from the crow's-nest to greet a drowsy Chopper. She, book and Chopper in hands, move to a lawn chair next to Nami investigating her tangerines. Sanji rushes to prepare and elaborately deliver beverages and breakfast pastries to the ladies, effortlessly ignoring Chopper's request for some. On his way back to the kitchen, Sanji passes a lounging Brook tuning his violin and a focused Usopp tinkering with some gadget. Franky checks the mechanisms and confirms functionality of the Sunny, and it is around this time that Zoro's nap is over.

But he knows something is _missing_.

It's something that bothers him, like a lingering scent of something he cherished was gone but the name escapes him. It stays, follows him as he drags his feet to the breakfast call. Zoro rounds the mast and, for a reason unbeknownst to him, he looks to the figurehead.

A lion with a mane resembling fiery rays from the sun. That is the face of this ship, the ship of the crew with the ever growing reputation shaking the world to its knees. As he looks on, Zoro feels his heart plunge through his stomach.

Luffy sits there every morning.

No one talks these mornings unless Luffy does, and Luffy speaks with volume. Still air lacking sound felt like a scorching day lacking clouds, and it was decimating.

"Where's Luffy?" Zoro asks, all but breaking the door of the hinges. Most of the crew is already seated, each in their unofficial assigned seat. And Luffy's is empty.

"That's what it is!" Usopp says. "I knew it was awfully quiet around here."

"Can't believe I didn't notice," muses Sanji. "I didn't get my morning workout trying to keep him from the fridge."

"Maybe he's still in bed?" Chopper chimes in, further suggesting Luffy feeling ill. "I can check his bunk."

"Don't worry about it," Zoro says while exiting, "I'm already up."

Zoro leaves behind the idle chatter with rising concern. Luffy didn't get sick, he's practically immune to everything. Disease, poison, blades, bullets… all those and more, yet he continues with a smile on his face.

"Luffy?" Zoro enters the boy's cabin and is met with silence. He calls again, and he again hears nothing.

"Luffy, get up, it's breakfast time." This was a half hearted effort. Zoro knew all too well that Luffy never slept in, and if he did he would be snoring. Even the coasted breakfast scent is always enough to rouse Luffy from slumber. Something was wrong.

Zoro breathes deep, calming his nerves and thinking rationally. As odd as it was for a small crew in the middle of open waters, people break routine every so often. Maybe he got stuck in the storage unit again overnight.

He settles on that and turns to leave, but something pulls him back. Though that's the most reasonable explanation, Zoro still has the feeling. Not once has his gut failed him, and his gut is screaming "Something is wrong".

With hardly a thought, Zoro approaches the bunk directly above his. Luffy's bunk.

Where Luffy isn't sleeping.

This would naturally urge him to look around the ship some more, but the remnants on the bed has his heart ready to burst. He feels pale, and a rush of mixed feelings stir in his gut as he cautiously picks up the items.

Luffy's hat.

"What," Zoro exhales. His breath shortens, and the hurricane in his head spirals faster and faster. Fear, anguish, confusion, and above all: anger. How did he not notice Luffy was missing immediately? And he trains all night, so he would have noticed an intruder. Further and further his mind spiraled until he felt faint, frustratingly weak from worry and self loathing. Luffy is gone, and it's Zoro's fault.

"Zoro?" Chopper sings innocently on entry. "What's taking so long? Is Luffy really sick?"

Speechless, Zoro turns his focus to Chopper, slowly as if every joint and tendon desperately clings to yesterday. Chopper comes closer, skin behind fur turning sheet white when he sees the hat in Zoro's hands.

"He's…" Zoro swallows thickly, ingesting stale air and dry words. "He's not here."

Every crew member gathers on the deck. Luffy's hat remains in Zoro's grasp--as if the crew knew the intricately woven bits of straw held him together--and the aptly named crew fiddles anxiously around it.

"Damn it!" Sanji spits, withholding the urge to kick the center mast into oblivion. "How could this happen?"

"It's hard to say," Robin muses. "I was on watch last night, and no ship or outsider came within sight. It was open waters the whole time."

"What if he fell off?" Usopp was close to bursting from fear, anxiety, restlessness, and nausea. Per usual, his panic is contagious to poor Chopper wailing by his side. "How long ago did it happen? He could be dead by now!"

"Relax, Usopp," Nami says. "Luffy goes nowhere without his hat. There's no way he woke up in the middle of the night, fell overboard, and somehow lost his hat while falling so it landed across the ship into his bed."

Everyone nods, eyes solemnly cast down. Zoro kept his rough fingers gently around the brim, his typical aura softened to… numbness. Any voices around him couldn't even reach his deaf ears; the thick, sorrowful air suffocating him devours it all. At some point, an annoying voice claws it's way through the smoke bearing accusations.

"Moss head was awake all night, yet he says he saw nothing," the sound grates against Zoro's ear canals. Once the words process, it's meaning digs its talons in his chest with precision and haste. "How do we know this braindead lump of grass and horse shit hasn't lost his mind completely?"

Then, Zoro felt it. The cork was lodged too tight, but the bottle kept filling and filling until it shatters under the pressure. Green tinted glass shoots in every direction, and the fog is gone.

Sanji steps back. Instant regret reshapes his face as Zoro falls to his knees. The flimsy strawhat stays firmly in his grasp while the rest of him caves in. Shoulders pushed forward casting his front in shadow, limp arms leading to stern fingers beginning to shake, and a racing mind hiding behind empty eyes. Zoro can hardly hear the panicked crew rushing to his aid, save Nami scolding a stunned Sanji.

"Is this really the time for your ridiculous rivalry?!" Nami was hardly calm either, but her cork held fast. "Luffy is gone! If you were all in the boy's room, how did you not notice either?"

Sanji swallowed thickly, anxious eyes flickering between two different and unexpected eruptions. Attempting to still them, he closes his eyes and breathes deep.

"Now's not the time for pointing fingers." Nami turns to the rest. "We have to find Luffy."

A few beats later, the crew nods. An occasional sniffle or shaky breath was heard, but determination lifted their heads.

All but Zoro's.

"Everyone search the ship again. There must be some other clues we missed," Nami commands. Feet and hooves depart quickly, and soon the deck is left with just Nami and Zoro.

Cautiously, she approaches the broken man she didn't know could break. Zoro never bore weakness, not in physical strength nor emotional vulnerability. Yet here he was, a pitiful figure curved over his last piece of sanity.

More than anyone, Nami knew the unnatural connection between Luffy and Zoro. She met them in a pitiful dinghy, an undivided force chasing impossible aspirations. Whatever Luffy did, it never phased his dedicated first mate. Whatever Zoro did, his captain was the first to understand.

"Hey, tough guy." Nami breathes these words gently, easing herself on the ground beside him. With no response, she rubs gentle circles on his back and continues. "We'll find him. Before then, he might even come back like he always does. Right? He always does…"

Nami jumps at the hand on her knee. Zoro doesn't speak for a while, and she knows that he understands. They breathe in each other's comfort for a moment before Zoro coughs out a laugh.

"Y'know…I think he's right." Zoro lifts his head ever so slightly, revealing eyes glazed over with tears and fog. "I am losing my mind."

Time passes until the sun is past it's peak, and the crew gathers again. This time, everyone stands tall and determined with random useless clues. Until Brook speaks.

"It was really hard to see, especially since I don't have eyes," Brook pauses to laugh, "but I have found this card by Luffy's bed. It's… strange."

A boney hand unfurls to reveal a small, rectangular piece of paper. It's deep purple background glows behind a single sentence in white, curly font:

_Do not mourn, for your beloved will find peace in Solace._

"Solace?" Franky squints before straightening his back. "Is that a city? Are we close to an island?"

"The nearest island should be a couple hours from here," Nami says, investigating her log pose. "He could be there. Along with his kidnappers."

Thin clouds cover the sun, and the Sunny gets darker. Whatever mystical presence that exists on that island likely held their beloved captain with unknown power. A simple flash of Luffy's blinding smile passed through their minds, and Zoro instinctually gripped his swords tighter.

They would get him back. They _had_ to get him back.


End file.
